Anon Mhkv 12III
Roberta Frank (ed.) 2017, ‘Anonymous Poems, Málsháttakvæði 12’ in Kari Ellen Gade and Edith Marold (eds), Poetry from Treatises on Poetics. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 3. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 1227.
Skips ‘the ship’s’
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skip (noun n.; °-s; -): ship
láta ‘say’
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láta (verb): let, have sth done
notes
[1] láta (3rd pers. pl. pres. indic.) ‘say’: The verb could also be taken in the sense ‘let, allow’ (‘men let the ship’s sailyards be short’).
menn ‘Men’
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maðr (noun m.): man, person
skammar ‘short’
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skammr (adj.): short
rár ‘sailyards’
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3. rá (noun f.): sail-yard
notes
[1] rár (f. acc. pl.) ‘sailyards’: Sailyards are horizontal arms supporting the sail, and the rá was typically long and slender (see McGrail 1998, 232; Jesch 2001a, 162). The meaning of the adage, which also occurs in Hávm 74/3, is disputed. This short yardarm has a long bibliography, beginning with Eiríkr Magnússon (1888, 334), who proposed as context a shipwreck in which a drowning man, clutching a floating yardarm, would wish it longer. Björn Magnússon Ólsen (1915b, 78) made the sensible equation: small sailyard = slow ship. Falk (1922, 174) noted that a short yardarm was a good thing when battling gusts in a fjord. Heusler (1915-16, 115) returned to the improbable reading (CPB II, 365) of ON rár ‘nooks’ as ‘cabins’: ‘scant (i.e. cramped) are a ship’s berths.’ In HHund I 49/4 (NK 137), rár langar ‘long sailyards’ are a good thing. Hermann Pálsson (1999a, 202) recalled the double-entendre proverb in which reiði means both ‘anger’ and ‘(ship’s) tackle’: stutt (or skömm) er skipsmanna reiði ‘short is the anger/equipment of sailors’. See also Ísl. Málsh.: reiði; skipmaður.
skatna ‘of magnates’
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skati (noun m.; °-a; -nar): chieftan, prince
notes
[2] hugrinn skatna þykkir grár ‘the heart of magnates seems grey’: The adj. grár ‘grey’ is most likely used in the sense ‘hostile, malicious’ here (cf. Heggstad et al. 2008: grár 2 and Note to st. 6/3). For a discussion of hugr ‘mind, thought, disposition, soul, heart’, see Þul Hugar ok hjarta, Note to l. 1.
þykkir ‘seems’
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2. þykkja (verb): seem, think
notes
[2] hugrinn skatna þykkir grár ‘the heart of magnates seems grey’: The adj. grár ‘grey’ is most likely used in the sense ‘hostile, malicious’ here (cf. Heggstad et al. 2008: grár 2 and Note to st. 6/3). For a discussion of hugr ‘mind, thought, disposition, soul, heart’, see Þul Hugar ok hjarta, Note to l. 1.
hugrinn ‘the heart’
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hugr (noun m.): mind, thought, courage
notes
[2] hugrinn skatna þykkir grár ‘the heart of magnates seems grey’: The adj. grár ‘grey’ is most likely used in the sense ‘hostile, malicious’ here (cf. Heggstad et al. 2008: grár 2 and Note to st. 6/3). For a discussion of hugr ‘mind, thought, disposition, soul, heart’, see Þul Hugar ok hjarta, Note to l. 1.
grár ‘grey’
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grár (adj.; °gráan/grán): grey
notes
[2] hugrinn skatna þykkir grár ‘the heart of magnates seems grey’: The adj. grár ‘grey’ is most likely used in the sense ‘hostile, malicious’ here (cf. Heggstad et al. 2008: grár 2 and Note to st. 6/3). For a discussion of hugr ‘mind, thought, disposition, soul, heart’, see Þul Hugar ok hjarta, Note to l. 1.
leikr ‘plays’
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3. leika (verb): play
við ‘with’
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2. við (prep.): with, against
tanna ‘tooth’
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tǫnn (noun f.; °tannar; tenn/tennr/tennar): tooth
notes
[3] sár tanna ‘the aching tooth’: Lit. ‘pain of the teeth’. An international proverb (semper cum dente remanebit lingua dolente ‘the tongue always remains with the aching tooth’), deployed in courtly-love contexts by at least five early troubadours; cf. Bishop Folc of Marseille (Schulmann 2001, 186-7): ‘I know, as “Toward the toothache turns the tongue,” I turn to the lady who snarls at me’.
sár ‘the aching’
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sárr (adj.; °compar. -ari, superl. -astr): sore, painful; wounded
notes
[3] sár tanna ‘the aching tooth’: Lit. ‘pain of the teeth’. An international proverb (semper cum dente remanebit lingua dolente ‘the tongue always remains with the aching tooth’), deployed in courtly-love contexts by at least five early troubadours; cf. Bishop Folc of Marseille (Schulmann 2001, 186-7): ‘I know, as “Toward the toothache turns the tongue,” I turn to the lady who snarls at me’.
trauðla ‘scarcely’
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trauðla (adv.): hardly
er ‘is’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
gengt ‘safe to walk’
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gengr (adj.; °superl. -str): safe to walk, traverse
á ‘on’
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3. á (prep.): on, at
ís ‘ice’
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íss (noun m.; °íss; dat. ísi/ís; ísar): ice
of ‘in’
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3. of (prep.): around, from; too
vár ‘spring’
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3. vár (noun n.): spring
Mjǫk ‘Very’
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mjǫk (adv.): very, much
fár ‘few’
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3. fár (adj.; °compar. fǽrri/fárri(Mág² 11), superl. fǽstr): few
er ‘are’
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2. vera (verb): be, is, was, were, are, am
sér ‘in themselves’
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sik (pron.; °gen. sín, dat. sér): (refl. pron.)
œrinn ‘sufficient’
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œrinn (adj.): ample, sufficient
einn ‘’
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2. einn (pron.; °decl. cf. einn num.): one, alone
eyvit ‘not at all’
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eyvit (adv.): nothing, not at all
týr ‘it helps’
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2. týja (verb): [it helps]
þótt ‘though’
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þótt (conj.): although
skyndi ‘hastens’
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2. skynda (verb): rush, hasten
seinn ‘the slow one’
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seinn (adj.; °seinan; compar. seinni, superl. seinstr/seinastr): slow, late
gǫfgask ‘gain stature’
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gǫfga (verb): endow, worship
mætti ‘could’
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mega (verb): may, might
af ‘from’
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af (prep.): from
gengi ‘the company he keeps’
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gengi (noun n.): support, following
hverr ‘each man’
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2. hverr (pron.): who, whom, each, every
gǫrva ‘fully’
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gǫrva (adv.): fully
þekkik ‘I recognise’
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1. þekkja (verb): perceive, know
sumt ‘some things’
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2. sumr (pron.): some
hvé ‘how’
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hvé (conj.): how
ferr ‘go’
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fara (verb; ferr, fór, fóru, farinn): go, travel
Interactive view: tap on words in the text for notes and glosses
Men say the ship’s sailyards are short; the heart of magnates seems grey; the tongue plays with the aching tooth; it is scarcely safe to walk on ice in spring. Very few are sufficient in themselves; it helps not at all though the slow one hastens; each man could gain stature from the company he keeps; I recognise fully how some things go.
[1-4]: The same rhyme is carried over four lines, as in sts 13/1-4 and 19/1-4. — [4]: Cf. proverbs in Ísl. Málsh.: ís. — [5]: Cf. Ísl. Málsh.: einhlítur; fár 2. — [6]: See Ísl. Málsh.: seinn; cf. the reverse proverb in Njáls saga (Nj ch. 44, ÍF 12, 114): kemsk, þó at seint fari ‘all will come in good time’. — [7]: SnSt Ht 26/8 cites this proverb (vex hverr af gengi ‘each gains from his following’) in a stanza illustrating orðskviðu háttr ‘proverb’s form’; cf. gengileysi ‘lack of a retinue’ (Egill St 9/8V (Eg 80)), referring to the falling away of the skald’s friends and supporters.
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